Hello, Good-bye

SunflAug07
Originally uploaded by kage2007

Hello to the dependable sunflower which always volunteers in my garden and will always remind me of my mother-in-law. If I had the time, I'd harvest the seeds; because I don't have the time (to harvest AND shell), the birds have free reign. Good-bye to my blog. It was fun to create it and learn a few things; but my camera is presently broken, and I've started a new job. A summer journal it is, and I am happy.

Monster Hydrangea

HydAug07
Originally uploaded by kage2007

I'm having photo difficulties--as in a cracked LCD screen. It's time to get another camera, but I guess I'll punish myself with this one a little longer first. It's been slow-going getting photos, and I can't delete them.
Anyway, who doesn't have problems? :)
My hydrangea has given me much satisfaction for many years, but this year it's doing something a bit funny by giving me one huge, already flowering hydrangea, and a few smaller ones which are not, yet, flowering. I refurbish my dried arrangement every fall and hope I can save this--that it turns colors before it turns brown. Always a patient gardener...kind of.

Rusty Daisy

metalDEndJy07
Originally uploaded by kage2007

I didn't know when I purchased this metal daisy this spring at the Master Gardener's day-long event that it would get rusty. Perhaps due to the surprise, I wasn't immediately taken to it, but soon I decided that I liked the contrast in colors--and even the juxtaposition of life and death. And that does it; I finally used the word "juxtaposition" (I can't tell you how many times I heard it from professors in college). And I amuse myself.

Only One

SwtPeaEJy
Originally uploaded by kage2007

It's been a very busy August so far, and I need to take more pictures (with my now broken LCD screen). Anyway, I usually have a lot of Sweet Peas crawling up the espalier by early summer, but it now has a dwarf apple (which was intended to begin with--it's just the third one!), so I couldn't plant all those pea seeds there. I scattered them here and there, but this is the only plant I see. Not liking Wisconsin summers, this plant was in its glory and is now fading fast. I'll have to make a place for them next year as I do enjoy the flower, the fragrance, and the beauty (while it lasts).

Give it away. Take some back!

GerEJy07
Originally uploaded by kage2007

It seemed like I had so many geraniums (that's what we'll always call them even though Martha has tried to set us straight) overwintering in pots, that I just let my hub take some early this summer and plant them in his own gardens (he's not the potted kind of guy). This is doing so nicely on the north side of the house, that I'll have to remember to take a cutting soon to overwinter again. I had so much to do in the gardens this spring (I always like to have everything in by the end of May, like all my elderly neighbors have done for years). Hub was such a help that I knew he would be pleased with this plant--a simple pleasure all around.

Only Summer

GerbDEJy07
Originally uploaded by kage2007

DaughterJ showed me how to reset my very simple camera to get a better close-up, so I was really excited to see it turn out like this! It may be one of my last as my LCD screen now looks like a broken window, but I don't have time to mess with that right now (yes, later). I'm back from vacation where I did spot a couple new Wisconsin wildflowers and reacquainted myself with ones I noted a year ago or so. This Gerbera is not a wildflower, but I did try to over-winter it one year. It was a tough one, needing lots of attention (like watering). It made it through the winter but never really came back. Maybe it wasn't my fault. So, I'll just buy a new one each spring and enjoy it for a season. Right now it has two flowers, and I try to be very patient waiting for each one. Such delight.

A Double Surprise

Globe&BellsEJy
Originally uploaded by kage2007

Not only did the Globe Thistle from sisterA come back this year after dogC chewed off quite a bit of what I had last year, but the Creeping Bellflower (Campanula) was a lovely surprise--a Wisconsin Wildflower! I'm not sure where it came from, but suddenly I see them everywhere, especially in the fields.
I'm hoping to find many wildflowers as I head to the mid-northern region of the state for a week.